Getting to Know Who's Who

Welcome to the 2010 edition of the WholeFoodsWho’s Who of Manufacturers and Suppliers, the only reference tool of its kind in the natural products industry. In these pages, you will find listings of hundreds of companies and thousands of individuals who work for these companies. Using this directory, you’ll be able to track down company names when you know a person’s name or vice versa.

Here’s how to use the WholeFoods Who’s Who of Manufacturers and Suppliers:

• If you are a retailer, you can look in this directory for manufacturers (beginning on Page 103), which we define as those companies making and/or marketing branded, finished products for eventual sale by a retailer to a customer. These products are the bread-and-butter of almost every retailer’s business, and this issue includes important information about the companies that offer them. You will find names, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, toll-free numbers, e-mail addresses and Web sites. You’ll learn when these companies got started, the best ways to contact them and the names of their key staff members.

• If you are a manufacturer (i.e., someone who offers branded, finished products to a wholesale or retail audience), you’ll probably want to spend most of your time in the Suppliers Section beginning on Page 85. We identify suppliers as those companies that offer raw materials, product ingredients (both branded and generic), contract manufacturing and private label services, production and packaging equipment and materials, and the like. Their defining characteristic is that they are selling to companies that will in turn take the credit (or the blame) for the branded products that eventually wind up in consumers’ hands. Suppliers, in our view, are businesses dealing with other businesses and are twice or three times removed from the public (they sell to manufacturers, who may sell to wholesalers, who then sell to retailers, who ultimately sell to consumers).

Retailers also may want to peruse the Suppliers Section, particularly if they are interested in mounting or expanding their private label offerings.

No matter who you are or what function you perform, you may want to consult the extensive alphabetical listing of key personnel that begins on Page 143. The people listed here, along with their job titles and company affiliations, are among the elite of the natural products industry—owners, executives, managers and department heads. If you can’t remember where a specific he or she works, this section of the Who’s Who may answer your need.

We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished in this Who’s Who issue. We’re certain that as you use it, it will become a valued resource.